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Eugene traffic engineer lacked required license

Tom Larsen was reassigned to a new job after the city learned of the mixup

By Christian Hill

The Register-Guard

Appeared in print: Wednesday, Nov. 25, 2015, page A1

Tom Larsen

State regulators are investigating the city of Eugene’s former traffic engineer for performing unlicensed work for the city for six years, after he failed to renew his Oregon professional engineer license in 2008.

City Manager Jon Ruiz officially removed Tom Larsen in April from the traffic engineer position he’d held since 2000, after Larsen said he alerted his supervisor and state regulators that he had failed to pay the fees to renew his license, which had expired at the end of 2008.

Larsen told The Register-Guard he realized early this year that he hadn’t paid the fees and renewed his license in 2008 and in subsequent years. Larsen first obtained his Oregon professional engineer license in 1982.

Larsen told The Register-Guard he thought he had renewed his Oregon P.E. license, but “I don’t have records.”

He acknowledged it was a “screw-up on my part. I’ll own it.”

Larsen said he’s working to restore his license, while the state Board of Examiners for Engineering and Land Surveying investigates him for doing professional engineering work without a license.

The board’s law enforcement committee, which investigates cases of unlicensed practice, will review at its Dec. 10 meeting in Salem the staff’s investigation report. The committee can recommend no action be taken, or notify Larsen of penalties for violating a state law or rule.

The city shifted Larsen to a new position, as city traffic operation manager, after removing him as traffic engineer. The job includes some of the same duties as his former position but doesn’t require him to have an Oregon professional engineer license. It pays slightly less. Larsen is paid $90,729 in his current job, compared to $94,827 as traffic engineer.

The city added the job of traffic engineer to the responsibilities of Jeff Lankston, the city’s maintenance director.

State law prohibits an individual from working as a professional engineer without a valid state license.

Professional engineers in Oregon must pass tests and prove they have the required education and experience before they can obtain a license.

To keep the license, the holder must perform 30 hours of continuing education every two years and pay $150 every two years to renew the license. To have kept his current, Larsen would have had to renew his license in 2008, 2010, 2012 and 2014 and meet the continuing education requirement throughout that time.

Larsen said he kept up with his continuing education requirement.

Larsen said he’s aware of the state investigation. “It’s an ongoing investigation,” he said. “That’s as much as I know and I can say.”

The city is cooperating with the state investigation, said Lankston, Larsen’s supervisor.

Lankston said Larsen informed him and the board in February that his license had expired at the end of 2008.

From 2009 onward, Larsen had used his Oregon P.E. stamp to approve engineering plans for city transportation projects, Lankston said.

It is illegal under state law for an engineer to stamp or seal any document if their license has expired.

Lankston said the work mostly involved approving plans for street striping, paving and pedestrian crossing and traffic signals. Lankston said he is not sure how many plans Larsen improperly approved.

Lankston said the city is reviewing the legal status of those plans Larsen approved with an expired license.

“I don’t see any issues with the plans or the health and safety of the public related to the issue,” said Lankston. He said he believed Larsen made a “mistake.”

“I think the review process will take care of any issues and I think the engineering is good,” Lankston said.

Lankston said other city professional engineers with valid licenses reviewed the plans Larsen approved from 2009 to early 2015, and the city engineer gave them final approval.

But it appears Larsen’s expired license escaped detection because, Lankston said, employees who drafted the plans were updating the expiration date on electronic stamps used by engineers in the department without checking to ensure the engineers had a valid, current state license.

Lankston said the department ended that practice earlier this year after Larsen told them about his expired license.

Most plans are stamped electronically, although engineers also continue to use rubber stamps.

Lankston declined to say whether the city disciplined Larsen for continuing to perform engineering work after letting his license expire.

Larsen said he checked with the board and realized his license had expired after a city employee asked about the 2014 expiration date of a stamp.

In April, City Manager Ruiz signed an administrative order removing Larsen as traffic engineer and appointing Lankston, who holds a valid Oregon P.E. license, to take over those duties.

As traffic engineer, Larsen performed duties the city manager delegates to an employee related to traffic management. He was empowered, among other things, to sign administrative orders to designate streets, the direction of traffic flow and parking meter zones. He also issued permits for oversize vehicles and to close streets. Lankston said Larsen didn’t need a P.E. license to sign the orders.

Larsen also managed the section in the city’s public works department that maintains Eugene’s traffic signs, street signs and striping.

Larsen continues to manage the same section in the new position of city traffic operations manager but he no longer has the delegated duties as city traffic engineer and can’t perform work that requires an engineering license.

“He still manages the same budget and the same number of people,” Lankston said. “There was a bunch of duties taken away, the stuff that required a professional engineering license basically,” he said.

In his current position, Larsen is involved in two high-profile city projects: the proposed railroad “quiet zone” in Eugene and the temporary redesign of south Willamette Street to remove a travel lane and add a center turn lane and bike lanes, and to evaluate how that affects traffic and business.

Larsen had five years from his license’s expiration date to renew it, but failed to do so.

The board sends a notice letting engineers know their license is expiring, but it doesn’t send notices after the expiration date, said Jenn Gilbert, its executive assistant.

After five years, an engineer whose license has expired must apply for a new license.

If the board’s law enforcement committee recommends penalties, Larsen can accept them or request a conference to present his side of the case.

The conference can lead to a settlement between the board and Larsen. Larsen can take his case before an administrative law judge if he doesn’t agree to a settlement.

In either case, the board must approve any action against Larsen, which he could then appeal.

Penalties could range from a fine of up to $1,000 for each offense to refusing to issue him a new engineering license.